Marking The Calendar
by Jyo-Chan
Summary: It wasn’t everyday that you’d see a puppy in the city. And it’s not everyday you meet that little puppy and try to find its owner before your class started. Axel x Roxas. -AkuRoku Day Dedication-


It wasn't everyday that you'd see a puppy in the city. And it's not everyday you meet that little puppy and try to find its owner before your class started. Axel x Roxas.

Hahaha...random plot bunny…And YAY! Happy AkuRoku day!!

**Disclaimer - **I own nothing Kingdom Hearts related other than the first two games…and maybe that one magazine, but that hardly counts because it's fan-based. 記憶したか。

* * *

A man, whose hair was dyed an interesting shade of pink, yawned loudly as he stepped onto the balcony via the sliding door and closed it behind him. The morning was fresh, the air was crisp, and it was a beautiful morning.

Up until he heard a faint crash, coming from the lower levels of his apartment complex, and as he looked down, he spotted a boy, whose hair was a horrible mess, and who was running away from the building like a cat with its' poor tail caught on fire.

The man chuckled quietly to himself before he turned back to return to his apartment only to vaguely realize that he accidentally locked himself out when the door wouldn't slide back open.

"…Shit."

* * *

'Ten minutes, ten bloody minutes!' a blond boy cursed as he stormed out of the front doors of his apartment complex and started making a run for it towards the city center. His class was starting in ten minutes and he had overslept in by half an hour.

What could've been a nice, easy, slow morning for him, turned into a horrible rush as he tried to get changed, brush his teeth, try and eat breakfast and pack his things into his messenger bag for his lecture in less than five minutes.

It was like an indoor tornado had hit the place.

'Stupid alarm clock ran out of batteries today of all days.' he frowned as he dodged people left and right, rounded the corners with little care and dashed like mad to make his lecture class that was starting in…

'Eight minutes, oh shit!'

Normally, being a little late to class wouldn't really require such a drastic reaction, but you see, Roxas' lecturer wasn't really a nice guy. In fact, if you were even a _second_ late, he'd close the door on you and leave you outside to groan and moan away all the while he allowed himself to grin to himself and mentally pat his back for a job well done.

He was a sadistic man, Xemnas was.

But he was a good lecturer who was very passionate when it came down to literature and novels that had anything to do with studies of some other dimension he'd like to call 'Darkness'.

'Shit, shit, shit.' There was five minutes left and Roxas had absolutely no idea how three minutes suddenly went by in a blur without him ever noticing.

People stared at him as though he had gone crazy like he was a runaway mental patient, or as though he was running away from being caught after stealing some lady's purse.

There were stares, glares, looks of confusion, some anxiety.

First of all, he was not crazy. Sure he can be a little 'over-the-top' when it came down to drama performances like speeches and debates and what not, but he was _not_ crazy.

Second of all…He was not a thief either; he had never stolen anything in his whole entire life.

Except maybe for that one eraser that he err…'borrowed' from Olette for about a week. But he returned it in the end! Really!

With half of it still intact.

Roxas thought he could make a hasty dash across the road even though the pedestrian lights were flashing red, but in the end, his head won over and he stopped short of being run over.

There were three minutes left before the doors of doom would close on him, and there was still about another five minutes or so walk to the college.

He let out a shaky sigh, doubled over to rest his hands on his knees. Today was just not his day.

There was no point in denying it now; he was going to end up missing his class at this rate. But maybe he could ask one of his classmates to let him photocopy their notes or something.

Just as the pedestrian lights turned green, and just as he got himself ready to run like he's never run before, he heard a whine and a whimper from somewhere down under and then a soft tug on the bottom of his pants.

The blond looked down and did a double take, his eye widened just a smidgen in mixed shock and surprise.

"…Hello…?" he greeted a little warily.

* * *

Axel could not comprehend how he managed to get himself into this kind of situation, but now that it was oh-so-kindly bestowed upon him, he had no choice but to take it all in good stride. But that still didn't mean that he had to enjoy every second of it.

"…Mutt." he growled out fondly as he stared down at the little creature on the hardwood floor of his apartment.

Earlier in the day, his dear sister had asked him of a favor, and since he was the big brother and he owed her a couple of favors himself, he decided, 'Hey, why the hell not?'

Big mistake.

He should've asked what it was first before he decided to go along with it. Now, he was stuck with a black mutt for the whole day or until Kairi decided to come back from her girls' day out with Naminé.

The red head sighed, decided that sitting around the apartment and moping about wasn't going to get him anywhere, so he decided to go out for a walk and take the little mutt along with him.

"Come on." he spoke as he started for his bedroom to change into something more fashionable than just a plain shirt and a plain pair of shorts. The puppy obediently followed after him, his tongue hung out of his mouth in anticipation of a new adventure and he'd yip and bark every so often.

It took the red head a good ten minutes to get changed. But at the end of his efforts, he actually looked the same when compared to any other day. The puppy looked up at him curiously. But since he was colorblind…he wouldn't be able to see past black and white and shades of gray. Poor thing…

But then again, Axel was wearing a black t-shirt, always a black pair of pants, some black accessories…And you guessed it, even his freakin' shoes are black. One wouldn't be surprised if he wore black socks and black boxers too.

"Right then, time for a walk." he spoke as he started for the entrance, plucked up the light blue leash by the doorway, clipped it onto the collar of the puppy and made his way out of his apartment. The red head had no idea why his dear sister had to pick a light blue leash…It clashed with his fashion sense.

He brushed it off, decided not to let it get to him as he pulled the front door open only to end up having somebody knock on him instead.

"Holy shit! Axel, what the fuck?"

"Demyx, what the hell are you doing?" he pushed the hand away from his chest and stared at the said person.

"I was gonna come over and ask if you wanted to go out and get something to eat or something." he took a step back, looked at the red head with a quirked up eyebrow and then peered down when he heard a small growl, "And since when did you own a puppy?"

"It's not mine." he muttered out as he pushed the dirty haired blond a couple of steps back, half-dragged the puppy out and then closed his apartment door behind him, "It's Kairi's. She asked me to help look after it for a while." he reasoned as he locked the door and then placed his house keys back into his pocket.

"Oh, since when did Kairi own a puppy?" he asked curiously as he bent down and stared at the little black creature with big brown eyes, brunet eyebrows and a brown-tip tail.

"Since she saw a box of abandoned labs outside the mall and she decided to take one."

The dirty haired blond laughed at him and then straightened his back out, "Gotta admit that it's cute though." he grinned as the puppy strolled up and cautiously sniffed at the bottom of his trousers, "What's its name?"

"Don't know, don't care." really, he didn't care. Couldn't be bothered spending five seconds to look at the name tag.

Demyx shrugged it off; found that the subject of the puppy's name was unimportant, "Heading out for a walk?"

"Yeah." he started walking away and the puppy obediently followed, along with Demyx.

"Where to?"

The red head let out a soft, somewhat insufferable sigh, "Don't know, don't care."

And that was when they started their walk to who knows where with the puppy sniffing at everything new in the vicinity. They ended up having to stop every few feet or so due to the pup's curiosity and it wasn't long until the puppy had to do a number 1 and 2 in a grassy area close to the city park.

"Err dude…that's some nasty shit." Demyx cringed a little at the small dollop of poop.

Axel raised an eyebrow, at both his friend and the item on the floor, "No comment."

They decided to retreat (A.K.A run away) before anybody spotted them and demand that they pick up their poo and dump it in the bin.

They continued walking, made idle chatter about random things like concerts, clubs, bands, bars, and whatevers until they reached the city center.

They hadn't noticed before, but they found out that pets weren't allowed into most shops, not that it was surprising when taking into consideration that pets were very curious creatures and they would make a mess of things everywhere.

It would be boring if one of them went inside to check something out while the other waited outside with the puppy, so in the end, they just sighed and decided to just go for a walk instead and hope that Kairi would come back soon to pick up her damn dog.

Some half an hour later, they started to notice people staring at them, either because they almost seemed like a couple or the fact that there was a puppy with them which seemed very odd and out of ordinary. Or the light blue leash that was connected to the puppy that clashed with their dark sense of fashion…

They went ahead and ignored the looks, since most of them, they were pretty sure, were directed to the puppy who was surprisingly quiet and hadn't made them stop anywhere for the past half hour or so.

Axel let out a small groan and tilted his head back for a while before bringing it back down, "No, no. I'm just saying, you know?" he waved a hand to urge his friend to understand. "It could happen."

Demyx shook his head, "I still don't see your sense of logic."

"Ok, fine, think about it this way-" he turned his head to glance down for a short second before he ended up doing a double take and his heart suddenly started racing in his ribcage. "Oh shit, fuck me…"

This gained him the attention of a few people who passed by and the somewhat surprised look from the dirty haired blond.

"What?"

"The dog's gone." he held up the light blue leash and it came up with nothing.

No _wonder_ they hadn't made a stop anywhere for the past how many blocks and the fact that they had been getting stares.

"What?!" Demyx cried out as he made a grab for the clip at the end and stared at it as though the puppy would magically reappear.

"The dog is gone! G-O-N-E! GONE! Have you memorized it yet?!" Axel practically screamed out as he whipped his head left and right, up and down in search of the dog all the while ignoring the stares that he was receiving from some random people. "Shit! Kairi is gonna fucking kill me!" he cried out as he gripped his hair and pulled on it.

"I think she'll cut you up in pieces and feed it to her dog." he corrected, not even making an effort to help look around.

"She would if she found the mutt first!" he ignored the stares, curious eyes and looks of scorn from people that passed him by. A couple laughed at his misfortune as he started scampering around like a chicken without his head on.

* * *

"Where did you come from?" the blond asked as he picked up the black puppy and stared into its big brown eyes in hopes that he'd get an answer from it.

The blond didn't wait for even a yip before he started looking around for somebody who might be missing a puppy. He guessed that maybe a girl lost it, and if that was the case, all he'd have to do is look around for a frantic looking girl and swoop in to save the day.

Not that he'd actually _swoop_ in or anything.

He made a few circles and found nobody that looked mildly distressed and that was when he figured that maybe the puppy was a stray.

But hold on, there was a collar on the pup, but when he looked at the tag, all he got was a name and nothing more.

"…Apple…?" he quirked up an eyebrow at the puppy when it barked at its spoken name. "You're name's Apple?" another bark confirmed it. "Ok then Apple, where's your…er…master?" my god, it sounded so weird when he said it. He started to feel a little sorry for himself.

"HEY!!"

Roxas almost jumped ten feet in the air when a loud voice cried out, his grip on the puppy subconsciously tightened as his eyes widened a smidgen and his heart started to beat more rapidly in fear and adrenaline. He searched around for the source and locked eyes with a somewhat disgruntled looking red head. With an empty leash. Which was light blue.

Not quite the frantic girl he had been looking for.

* * *

Axel reckoned that he might've lost five years of his life when he started running like crazy, calling out for the puppy whose name he did not know and didn't bother to know. He went around shouting 'Mutt!' over and over again while Demyx went around with a cooing voice and went on saying, 'Here, puppy, puppy, puppy.'

They had received plenty of looks, curious stares, some glares, some that looked outright scared and very worried.

Some of the random people probably thought that the dirty haired blond and the red head were escaped mental patients.

"Goddammit," Axel was not happy, "I have no fucking idea how I lost the damn dog."

Demyx sighed as he sat down on a nearby bench, somewhat out of breath and his back a little hurting due to the fact that he had been walking around doubled over.

The red head continued cursing, "I mean, one fucking minute, the mutt was there, the next, it's fucking _gone_!"

This day just could _not_ get any worse.

The dirty haired blond opened his mouth to say something but stopped himself and squinted his eyes, "…Hey Axel?"

"_What_?!" he snapped as he turned his head to his friend who merely raised a hand and pointed to the other side of the road. "HEY!!" the red head immediately started for his new destination and left behind Demyx to sit and rest on the bench.

Axel was somewhat pleased when he caught a startled jump from the blond boy who was holding onto his puppy. Correction, not _his_ puppy, but his _sister's_ puppy.

Then blue eyes met his green and he felt his horrible mood simper away to something a little less agitated to something a little bit more relieved. At least the kid wasn't going to run away with the dog.

He waited somewhat impatiently for the red pedestrian lights to turn back to green, all the while keeping an eye on the blond boy who was somewhat caught in between returning the pup and wanting to do something else.

Hopefully not run away with it. God knows that Axel'll put up a good fight and a good run for it.

The lights changed to a green color and the red head immediately started a quick walk up to the blond, but when he realized that the kid was just patiently waiting and _not_ running, he slowed down to a casual walk and stopped just short with the tip of his shoes almost touching the other.

"Hey, thanks for finding my dog." he was tempted to wrangle the mutt on the spot, but A) it would give a bad first impression and B) it was not his dog to begin with.

"Err no problem." he didn't really want to give the puppy back. Mainly because the red head didn't seem the type to own a puppy and Roxas wasn't too sure if the puppy even belonged to him.

Yes, he was aware that the red head was holding onto an empty leash, but still…

Gotta be careful nowadays. He knew for a fact that some people actually _eat_ dogs…

Any minute now, a frantic girl would come running up to them and demand back her beloved Apple.

The blond almost twitched but his hold on the puppy remained firm.

The other raised his hand, but instead of plucking the puppy out of his arms, the red head went on and scratched behind the puppy's ear.

"You have no idea how stressing it was to find the damn dog."

'Is it even yours?' the blond was tempted to ask but instead, kept his mouth shut. "You named the puppy Apple?" or well, not quite firmly shut.

"Kairi named the mutt Apple?" he stared at the blond with a look of incredulity, "You've got to be shitting me. Poor dog."

"It's not yours?" his suspicions were now proven correct and there was no way in hell he was handing the puppy over now.

"No, it's my sister's. She dropped the dog off at my apartment for me to look after for a while." he reasoned and made a low insufferable sigh. "Having pets is too much responsibility for me. I'm better off without the damn critters shitting around in my apartment." he spoke oh-so fondly.

The blond almost laughed, but held back as the pup made a soft whine and a content whimper as the red head continued to scratch behind its ears.

Then the bell in the clock tower rang and Roxas remembered that he had somewhere to be. "Oh shit." he could see the doors closing in on him now.

"What?" the red head stared at him with a mixed look of surprise and shock.

"I've got class." he adjusted the puppy in his arms and took a look at his wrist watch. One minute past already.

"Class?" the other seemed a little more surprised and thrown off.

Maybe he assumed that Roxas was too young (or too short) to be going to university or something, in which case, the blond would just humor the red head and say that he was the youngest applicant ever accepted.

Big whooping lie.

Roxas was actually 18, but he looked the size of a 16 year old kid. He never liked his short stature. In fact, he had to curse at it at _least_ once a day.

"Yeah, class." that was when the blond handed the puppy back and was about to make another dash towards his university when he realized that the pedestrian lights were red. He prayed and hoped that today was one of those days where he was lucky enough to get a substitute teacher.

The chance of that happening? One in a bazillion. Xemnas has never once taken a sick day or a day off.

And then the red head had to pop his current train of thought; "But it's Saturday."

That was when the weight on Roxas' shoulders suddenly decided to fly away, his knees decided to weaken just a tad and the expression on his face decided to fall off and become neutral. Or deadpanned.

'Saturday?' he repeated in his head, his back still turned to the other.

Wait, that didn't make sense.

He furrowed his eyebrows in thought and tired to make sense of everything that was happening right now.

Wasn't today Friday? He was pretty sure it was.

The blond started to rummage around his pockets for his phone, whipped it out, found his way into the calendar application and discovered that today _was_ indeed Saturday.

So another question appeared; 'How the hell did I suddenly end up missing one day?'

He recounted his week, tried to recall what happened earlier all the while ignoring the looks that many pedestrians were giving him, one of them belonging to a certain red head who was now holding onto a whining puppy.

And then he realized that Monday had been a public holiday…

"Oh…it's _Saturday_." he reiterated somewhat dazedly. He could've slept in till way, _way_ into the afternoon and not give a damn about college for another couple of days.

The red head chose that moment to laugh at him, "You didn't know today was Saturday?"

Roxas chose not to dignify the question with an actual answer; he was already embarrassed about it. His hot cheeks were hard evidence of said embarrassment.

The laughing eventually ceased, the puppy gave a small sneeze and the pedestrian lights turned back to green, not quite the same color as the red head's eyes, Roxas noticed.

Ok, so, Roxas now has a whole weekend to himself and he has no plans what so ever. What was he to do? He figured he should just go home and go back to sleep or something. He was damn tired after all that running to a class that he didn't even have.

Although he could be wrong. Maybe Xemnas decided to give an extra lecture because of the public holiday on Monday. The blond brushed the thought away, decided that it was too late and the doors would've been dead-bolted by now.

A sniff was heard from behind and Roxas turned his head to the side a little.

"Well, since you're not busy and all…unless you've got class?" the red head asked.

The blond caught the teasing tone in that voice. He couldn't help but sneer and smirk a little, "I don't have class." he spoke as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket, "Moron."

"I heard that." the red head was beside the blond now, the puppy was back on the ground and the light blue leash clipped to his collar, "And _I'm_ not the one who thought that today was Friday."

The blond almost rolled his eyes and muttered, "Jerk…"

"I heard that too."

The blond almost cursed and started wondering when the hell did he lose his ability to talk in his head?

Luckily, the red head didn't catch that last bit.

The pedestrian lights turned back to red, not quite the same shade as the other guy's hair, Roxas couldn't help but notice again.

"So, what's my savior's name?" the red head asked as he peered at the blond.

"None of your business." he bit back as soon as the question was asked.

The other didn't seem too offended by it, "Alright then, I'll just shorten that to None."

Somewhat thrown off, he couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows and have a face of pure confusion written all over, "What the fu-"

"Hey, you're the one that's not telling me." he added with a smirk.

The blond let out a scoff, glanced down at the puppy who gave his trousers another soft tug. It was cute, and Roxas couldn't help but feel just a little sorry for the puppy that had to spend his day with this big oaf of a red head.

As soon as the lights turned back to green, the red head started walking forward but stopped himself a quarter way across when he noticed that the blond wasn't following, "What's up?"

Roxas stared at the other for a moment, feeling somewhat tired and just wanted to go back to his apartment and sleep, which he decided to go ahead and do. "I'm going home. Take care of Apple." he spoke as he turned around and started his way back towards his apartment.

The blond didn't bother to give a wave or even a goodbye, he hardly knew the guy, but he felt a little downtrodden when he heard a yip and a bark from behind that came from the little black puppy.

The walk back towards his apartment passed by in a complete blur and it wasn't until he heard the 'ding' that belonged to the elevator that his senses came back to him.

As soon as he stepped back into his apartment, closed the door behind him and gave it a lock, he dumped his messenger bag onto the floor, kicked his shoes off, shuffled into his bedroom and fell on top of his bed with a groan.

He dreamt of black puppies, baskets of apples, and a certain red head whose name he never got and didn't bother to learn.

* * *

"Honey?" the man, whose hair was an interesting shade of pink, called out as he tapped the glass of the sliding door and wobbled the handle left and right in a futile attempt to get it to unlock, "Larx baby?"

A stumble from within was heard and eventually, a blonde woman appeared in his view, to which he started waving frantically and pointed at the door.

"Marls?" she made a slight face as she walked towards him and opened the door, "What's up babe?"

"Thank _God_ you heard me. I thought I was gonna be stuck outside forever." he sighed in relief as he stepped inside back into the apartment and vowed never to go use the balcony again.

"Why would you think that?" she asked as she slid the door close again and decided to go into the kitchen to fix herself something to eat.

"I accidentally locked myself out." he spoke with another sigh as he collapsed on the couch of his living room.

"…But honey." she started as she stared at him with a slight face, "The door locks from the _inside_."

"…Fuck…"

* * *

"Well, that was one _hell_ of an adventure." the red head muttered out as he unclipped the leash from the pup and threw it on to the door side table.

The puppy yipped and yapped as it began to run around the apartment in total excitement.

Axel sighed again as he settled on the couch and ignored the way the mutt's claws would tap, tap, tap on the floor as it scurried past.

He sighed one last time before he picked up the remote and tried to find something to watch on TV only to bemoan the fact that he just missed watching America's funniest home videos.

But at least Top Gear was next.

* * *

He was bored.

Scratch that.

He was bored of hearing himself speak in his head.

It was a Thursday afternoon; half a week since that _riveting_ weekend run-in with the puppy and the red head.

Roxas was sitting in the park after his lecture on a sunny day. He was beneath the shade of a young blossoming tree that had leaves of a vibrant green and flowers in different shades of red.

There was a moment when the blond felt a soft buzzing in the back of his head, as though there was something of a reminder going on, but he could hardly pay attention due to the fact that his eyes were glued to a particular page of a novel in his hands.

'It's because I'm alone. If I could just feel it, it would be different, because I would not be alone. But if I were not alone, everybody would know it. And he could do so much for me, and then I would not be alone. Then I could be all right alone.' he read to himself for the third time already in hopes of gaining some sort of understanding.

It was a complicated piece of literature. He was pretty damn sure that Xemnas wanted all his students to keel over in stress or something just for the sake of his amusement.

Roxas couldn't help but admit how interesting the story was, considering that it was written with fifteen different points of views through fifteen different people all in the same novel.

But he was starting to feel a headache coming on from continuously shifting from one different personality to another in his head. He felt like he just grew four different voices.

Maybe Xemnas wanted all his students to contract the horrible disorder of having multiple personalities. The bastard…The _sadistic_ bastard.

Roxas let out a soft sigh, craned his neck back to help relieve some tension and closed his eyes to let them rest.

When he opened his eye again, he saw green and red. There was another weird buzzing in his head and he swatted away the imaginary fly that was buzzing about.

He let out another sigh as he lay back onto the soft grass and tried to relax. His messenger bag was safe beside him, his novel rested on his chest.

His eyes shifted from leaf to leaf, flower to flower as they tried to pinpoint a particular shade of color, although he couldn't quite get the reason why he was doing it. Maybe he was just so damn tired and he just wanted to go home and sleep again.

But he was feeling awfully comfortably where he was and didn't feel like moving away anytime soon.

Roxas closed his eyes again, tried to make the buzzing go away, tried to make his mind let loose and just _rest_ and relax.

He might've actually fallen asleep if not for that little pitter-patter that was on his chest and his stomach.

Blue eyes opened up to come face to face with a very familiar looking creature.

"…Apple…?" he got a bark as a response.

* * *

"Axel, it is hereby decided that you will never, _ever_ own a pet."

"Wouldn't wanna own one anyways." he growled as he tried in vain to search for a little, little puppy lost in the big, big city. "Shit."

It had taken them about fifteen minutes and a few stares before they realized that the puppy was missing once again and the leash came up empty once more. It was better than last time, considering that the puppy had been gone for at least a good half an hour plus before they probably even noticed.

Demyx continued his task of cooing and snapping his fingers together to grab the attention of a puppy who was no where near by.

"Fuck…I don't think I'm gonna get as lucky as I did last time." he cursed again, not really on the lookout for the lost black creature anymore.

"Which reminds me…How is it-"

"Don't get me started." he snarled and tried to push off the thought of that blond kid.

In all honesty, Axel hadn't quite been expecting the blond to just walk off, but before he could even get a word out to treat the kid to something, he was already gone and out of sight.

The red head was quite disappointed, hell, he was sure even the puppy was. Wherever that little critter has scampered off to.

Axel sighed, brought a hand up to his face and tried to think, "If I were a puppy, where would I go?"

Demyx straightened his back and went on to consider the question, even though it had been somewhat rhetorical, "If I was the puppy and if I were hungry, I'd look for food."

"Mmhmm." the red head hummed, only taking into consideration half of what the dirty haired blond said.

"But I really need to go take a piss right now." he spoke as he started looking around for a fast-food restaurant to head into and borrow their facilities.

Even if what Demyx said had been an offhanded comment, the red head couldn't help but suddenly take it into consideration. He looked around, his peripheral vision caught sight of his dirty haired blond of a best friend going into a Mac and Donald's restaurant, and spotted a park nearby.

He started his trek uphill and kept his eyes open for any familiar signs of a little black puppy. A part of him hoped to see that blond kid again, but the chances of that happening were pretty low.

But maybe he should consider himself lucky again. Only because, lo and behold, there was his sister's puppy and that kid.

He felt a smile appear on his face as he walked towards the other, kept his steps light and his posture straight.

* * *

"Apple…? What're you doing here?" Roxas asked the puppy again and started looking around for that red head, or a frantic girl in search of her lost puppy.

Nobody around him looked frantic and not one of them had a head of red hair either. Roxas wasn't quite that disappointed but he figured that one of them was bound to make an appearance soon.

The blond sat up and the puppy fell off and landed on his lap. Roxas placed the book that he had been reading on top of his messenger bag and took another look around.

His mind was still buzzing with a nagging reminder but he brushed it off as he yawned. When he looked down at the puppy, he caught Apple yawning along with him. Roxas couldn't help but smile at the little animal.

"I see you've become very close with Apple." a somewhat familiar voice spoke.

The blond looked up, his smile fell off and he spotted the red head sauntering up towards him, "You again."

"Just so you know, the name's Axel."

The blond chose to ignore the introduction, "You make it a habit to lose your sister's dog often?" the blond felt incredibly sorry for the little puppy who wasn't as little as he remembered it to be last time.

"Not my fault Kairi went and bought a cheap-ass leash." he scoffed as he held up the light blue item, "The clip is faulty."

"You should've bought her a new one the first time it happened." he suggested as he started scratching behind the puppy's floppy black ears.

"Yeah well…" the red head made no further comment and watched as the puppy made himself very comfortable on the blonds' lap.

After a few more minutes of silence, which turned from mutual to somewhat awkward, the blond got up, handed the puppy back, picked up his messenger bag and book and decided to go home.

"See ya. Buy a new leash for Apple would ya?" the blond spoke as he turned on his heels and was about to walk off when something reached out and made a grab for his arm.

"Hey, I gave you my name; it's your turn to give me yours."

The blond quirked up an eyebrow as he stared at the red head and was about to make a biting remark that he never _asked_ for a name in the first place. For all he knew, the red head could just be using the puppy as an excuse to pick up girls. And guys apparently.

The red head continued talking, "Or would you prefer if I went around following you and calling you None?" he smirked.

The blond scoffed, yanked his arm back and brushed off the imaginary dust off the sleeve of his denim jacket, "Roxas."

"Rocks what?" the red head gave a very weirded out look.

"My name, you jack-ass."

It was the red head's turn to scoff, "What kind of a name is Rocksus."

"First of all, it's _Roxas_. And second of all, what kind of a name is _Axel_?" he retorted as he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at the red head.

"Oh touché."

Roxas gave a smirk and watched as the other placed the faulty clip back onto the collar and bent over to put the puppy down.

"Can I go now?" the blond asked as he started tapping his shoe onto the grass and Apple proceeded to wave his paw along with it.

"Why? So eager to leave?" he smirked, "I still owe you for finding the mutt. Twice now." he held up two fingers.

"I don't want anything," he spoke as he stopped tapping his shoe on the grass which made the puppy whine a little in disappointment as though his new toy was rudely snatched away from him. "Now if you don't mind, I need to go home and finish this book."

Axel noticed the book and the thickness of it and couldn't help but cringe a little. He was never a big fan of reading, "Finish it in the weekend." ah, procrastination.

"We're doing an overview tomorrow."

"Oh…"

The silence between them turned awkward again and the blond sighed and made another move to leave, but the red head opened his mouth again.

"Isn't tomorrow a public holiday?"

The blond widened his eyes a smidgen and tried to remember what today was and what tomorrow was going to be.

He vaguely recalled his friends asking him what he was planning to do tomorrow, but he told them that he was just going to finish up whatever work he had left and maybe revise some more. They all called him a nerd, in an affectionate way of course.

Roxas barely fought back a scoff that came out more like a random puff of air. But in the end he gave in. This guy just wasn't going to give up, "Ok, where do you have in mind?"

"Ice cream?" he suggested as he started walking towards the entrance/exit of the park. Only because everybody _loved_ ice cream.

"Sure." he shrugged and went along with it. Only because he hadn't treated himself to any junk food for the past how many weeks.

It was a short walk to the ice cream parlor in the university campus. There were still people milling about, chatting with their friends, playing cards and betting with their spare change.

There was a whole heap of people outside the pub slash bar, probably gonna thrash their system with alcohol since the very next day was a public holiday and what not, which meant that they could sleep in and worry about their hangovers rather than college instead.

Once they got to the ice cream shop, they walked up to the counter and placed down their orders. They couldn't help but cringe a little in distaste of the other person's choice of flavor.

There weren't a lot of people in the mood for ice cream today it seems, since nobody was around the place and there wasn't even a queue.

"You're eating apple flavored sorbet." Roxas pointed out once he got his own scoop of ice cream and the red head paid for the both of them.

The puppy whined and whimpered for a small lick and a bit of attention.

"Indeed I am." he smirked as he gave the ice cream another lick. "And _you're_ eating sea salt flavored sorbet."

"Yup." there was a soft tug on his pants but he had to resist those big brown puppy eyes. It probably wasn't very healthy for puppies to eat ice cream, but then again…same thing goes for humans too.

They eventually backtracked back towards the park and they sat on the park bench in mutual silence, stuck in their own thoughts before the both of the spoke simultaneously; "Weirdo.", each with a smirk on their faces.

The puppy whined and wagged its tail in anticipation, clearly not happy that he was being left out.

And to _think_ that it was Apple that brought them together in the first place. The nerve of it all.

It was a cruel, cruel world for a small, small puppy that had been lost _twice_ in the big, big city.

* * *

After taking a nice deep breath of the morning-afternoon air, the man known as Marluxia sighed out in contentment and watched as the clouds hovered in the skies and the sun shone on the many plants on his balcony.

Different arrays of colors littered the floor, ranging from deep reds to light yellows. From pastel colors, mixed rainbows, some plain, some special.

Sometimes, Marluxia would spend hours standing out in the balcony, just pruning the plants and leaves, watering them, spending time with them. And sometimes, he wouldn't mind just sitting out with them for hours on end.

But just as he was about to go back inside his apartment, maybe fix himself some breakfast, he came upon an unsuspecting conclusion…

"The _door_, so does _not,_ lock from the _inside_!!" he shouted as he tried with all his might to pull the door open only to fail miserably.

* * *

I've noticed that my one-shots are getting longer and longer. Good thing for you though. Lawls.

Hahaha, I love Marly. He's funny, funny, funny. Poor guy. Somebody go open the door for him because I sure as hell won't. Lawls.

Happy AkuRoku Day! Enjoy it with a side dish of Marxene. Lawls.


End file.
